I've been posting that the rescue plan is imperative, and should...

I've been posting that the rescue plan is imperative, and should not be seen as helping out rich mates, letting wall street excesses go unpunished or an intervention in free-market forces.

The fact is, if the ship is sinking and it's no use ranting about finding and punishing the drunken captain responsible for hitting the iceberg --- saving the passengers is first priority.

Banks have all but stopped lending. Not just the US ones in trouble, but all banks throughout the world. To customers and to each other. And if they do help each other it is at an incredible 11% interest, something like 5 times the normal.

Credit has dried up, and unless it is freed by removing bad debts off the books (to restore mandatory cash-to-loan ratios) banks everywhere, innocent or guilty, will go under, and the world grinds to a halt in the biggest global credit squeeze in history.

That's what is at stake, but some of those ignoramuses on Capitol Hill are financially illiterate or refuse to see it.

BTW: I'm back in FMG at $4.98.